If you’re one of those people who hates nut cheese, Imma sorry for you! This velvety, creamy, tangy stuff is heaven. I smeared it on mediocre slab of pizza last night, and it made the pizza light up like a Christmas tree! Ta-da! I eat it on steamed veggies, eggs, pasta, whatever. Try the nutritional yeast on popcorn with GG or GGX.

Combine Coco Corazón, butter, and corn syrup in a large microwavable bowl. Give it lots of headroom, because the stuff is going to bubble up.

Microwave for one minute, remove, stir in the butter to melt. If it’s not melted, microwave for another 30 seconds. Then microwave for 1.5 minutes. Remove and stir. Microwave for another 1.5 to 2 minutes—until the toffee starts to bubble. Remove and stir in the baking soda. Stir-stir-stir to blend in.

Pour half of the toffee over the popcorn in each bowl and stir-stir-stir to blend in. I use two spatulas. It feels like I’m conducting a chocolate orchestra.

Spread the popcorn out on wax paper to cool. If you let it cool in the bowls, it will be a big rock.

INSTRUCTIONSPreheat oven to 340 degrees. Season meat generously with Crop Duster. On the stove top, heat oil in a large Dutch oven, or other heavy roasting pan with a lid, over medium-high heat. Sear the meat until a dark crust forms, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove meat to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium and add butter to the pan. Melt the butter and add the whole head of garlic and vegetables, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pot, until the vegetables start to color, 8 to 10 minutes.

Return meat to the pot. Add broth, then cover the pot and transfer to the oven. Cook for 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Let roast sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. Remove meat to a cutting board to slice. Discard bay leaves and rosemary stems. Squeeze any garlic cloves remaining in their skins into the stew and discard the skins. You could also remove the veggies and whisk in flour to the gravy to thicken it and return the veggies to the pot (I did that).

Serve slices of meat in shallow bowls along with the vegetables and a generous amount of cooking liquid ladled over top.

Lisa at Photosynthesis in Ames turned us on to compound butter on Thanksgiving. She served it with Parker House rolls…seriously, I thought it was the best part of the meal. It turns out all salts AND sugars make great compound butters! Use them on baked goods, steak, veggies, toast, you name it!

These aren’t ours, but don’t they look lovely?

INGREDIENTS1 stick of butter2 tsp of SaltlickersParchment or waxed paper if you’re want a log shapeFresh herbs if you wish

Let the butter soften at room temp then stir in the spice (and herbs). Place the butter on a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, roll into a log, and chill for at least two hours.

DIRECTIONSCombine flour, yeast and Whassamatterhorn or Smoke Licker in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Serve with Saltlickers’ compound butter!

Split the squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place face down in a microwave safe dish with about one inch of water in the bottom. You may have to microwave each half separately if it is, indeed, a big a$$ squash. Microwave on high for about 14 minutes. You could also steam the squash in a steamer basket if you wanna go old school and skip the radiation (you hippy). When cool, scoop out the squash into a bowl and mix with a splash of olive oil, about 1 tbsp of Bangla-dash and 1 tsp of Crop Duster. Taste for spice. Splash some maple syrup in there if you’d like. Stuff the squash back into the empty shells. You could also sprinkle cheese (Manchego would be great) or breadcrumbs on top. Place the squash on the racks, shell down, and smoke with one pass of wood for about 30 minutes.

How much salt you put in depends on how salty the original mashed potatoes are. Most of our blends would work well. We used 1/2 tsp Cy Salt and 1/2 tsp Alliyum, but you could easily use 1/2 tbsp of each, if your potatoes are unsalted.

INSTRUCTIONSMix all the ingredients. Pancakes made from 1/4 of a cup of batter turn out best, we found. Heat fat in a big pan, fry both side on medium high heat. Dust with Alliyum. Reheat in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

WHAT’S THAT SAUCE?Equal parts of our homemade horseradish and this salad, plus a big glob of mayo thrown in.

This recipe works with Das Bigfoot, Bangla-dash or Roxy Taco. Bangla-dash wafers call for one more tsp of spice than Das Bigfoot or Roxy wafers. You can use regular-sized Nilla wafers, but we like the minis. Reduced fat Nilla wafers work great too—they’re harder and they absorb the oil and spice well. I first butter tried on these, but oil’s better!

Spread the wafers on a foil-covered cookie sheet. Pour the oil over them and toss with spice, 1/2 tsp at a time. Use your hands to make sure everything’s evenly distributed. Bake for 5 minutes. They will crisp when they cool.

Last weekend, we chili-ed our faces off, starting at the Stanhope Locker's first chili cook-off with pulled pork chili (left), then at Wheatsfield's Member Appreciation Day with roasted butternut sguash black bean chili (right, it's vegan!), served with Cy Salt Oyster crackers. Both batches had the same base, starting with 4 oz of dried chilis—leave the seeds in if you like heat—covered in 4 cups of boiling water and soaked for 1/2 hour. You can find dried chilis in the Mexican aisle of your grocery store. We used New Mexico chiles, but poblano, ancho or hatch would also work great and be fairly mild for heat. Both styles were delicious. Serves 12, adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.

INSTRUCTIONSFor pork chili: Sprinkle your pork shoulder with Crop Duster spice, Grilla Gorilla, or GGX, wrap in plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, up to 24. Preheat the oven to 300. Brown the shoulder in olive oil in a big Dutch oven or oven-safe pot. Cook in the oven for about 4 hours--till it’s falling apart. Remove, let it cool, and chop it short. This was my mistake for the Stanhope chili: I left the strands of pork too long and ropey, like a pulled pork sandwich.

For squash chili: Preheat the oven to 425. Toss your squash with a splash of olive oil and sprinkle with Crop Duster spice, Grilla Gorilla, or GGX. Roast for about 45 minutes, tossing after about 30 minutes.

For the chili: Pour the boiling water over the chilies and soak for 30 minutes. Drain off half the soaking liquid and save. Place the chilies, honey, vinegar, garlic, Roxy and Cy in a food processor and blend till you have a smooth paste.

Heat the oil on medium high in a big Dutch oven or heavy pot. Pour in the chile paste and stir for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice. Drain and rinse the beans and add them to the pot. If your chili’s looking dry, add some of the bean liquid, chile soaking liquid, or some dark Mexican beer.

Stir the meat or squash into the chili and cook on low for 1 hour, or in a crockpot on low for 4 hours. Taste for seasoning.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashedbananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the Iowa Nice Spice, egg, vanilla andbourbon, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixtureand mix in. Add the flour, mix. Fold in chocolate chunks. Pour mixture into abuttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a testercomes out clean. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.*Adapted from Deb Perelman

Line a lipped baking pan with foil or parchment paper, and either place bacon on a rack or direction paper/foil to bake.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes until a beautiful amber brown color. Remove from oven and place on paper towels to remove any excess bacon grease. Allow to cool.

In a shallow sauté pan, use approximately 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease to toast the chopped pecans until golden brown. Remove pecans to a bowl and add equal parts of Roxy Taco and Grilla Gorilla (heck - be bold and use GGX!) to taste and set aside.

Now it’s almost time to assemble the bacon candy! Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Heat the Baker’s dipping chocolate according to the directions. Do it SLOWLY so you don’t break the chocolate.

Dip each piece of bacon in the melted chocolate, leaving about a half inch uncovered where you can grab it. Use a spoon to make sure both sides are covered. Some people don’t like a lot of chocolate on theirs (weirdos) and others do - a matter of opinion.

Place the coated bacon slice on the lined cookie sheet and while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle it with the pecan mixture. Repeat until you run out.

Place cookie sheet in fridge or freezer to allow chocolate to set. Remove from cookie sheet and store in covered container in refrigerator.

Boil potatoes in salted water until just cooked through. Blanch green beans for 3-4minutes. When potatoes are still warm, but into bite-sized pieces. Toss with the wine,chicken stock and Crop Duster. Make dressing by whisking together olive oil, vinegarand mustard. Add to potatoes, beans, and onion. Toss with chives, parsley, and FrenchTickler. Serve at room temperature, si’l vous please.

*Collin asked "Is 'Frenchowa' a real thing?" "No."

**Adapted from Ina Garten

Not the real potato salad. Lisa's was much prettier, served in a heart-shaped bowl.

Benedictine is a traditional crustless cream cheese cucumber sandwich served on Derby Day. They actually use green food coloring, but we used Alliyum to give this crustless white bread wonder serious pizzaz.

Peel and grate the cucumber into a strainer. In the bowl, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, and Alliyum. Spread about 1/4" of goop onto each slice, spreading just almost to the edges of the bread. Top with lettuce. Sandwichify. Cut diagonally into four triangles.

Hot browns are Kentucky staples: turkey and cheese sauce atop toast. Ada the Lexingtonite suggested topping them Roxy Taco and avocado, and I was like [ten million high fives]. Adapted from the Brown Hotel's recipe.

Melt butter and slowly whisk in flour to form a thick paste or roux. Cook roux for 2 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Whisk heavy cream and cook over medium heat until the cream begins to simmer, about 2-3 minutes. Remove sauce from heat and slowly whisk in Pecorino-Romano cheese until the sauce is smooth. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

For each Hot Brown, place one slice of toast in an oven safe dish and cover with 7 oz. turkey. Take the two halves of Roma tomato, two toast points, and 1/4 of the avocado slices and set them alongside the base of turkey and toast. Pour half of the sauce over the dish, completely covering it. Sprinkle with additional cheese. Place entire dish under a broiler until cheese begins to brown and bubble. Remove and cross two pieces of crispy bacon on top. Sprinkle with Roxy Taco and parsley and serve.

I invented this for a tasting at Wheatsfield. I used Roxy Taco, but you could try Das Bigfoot, Alliyum, Smoke Licker, Grilla Gorilla or GGX, Cha-cha Lima, or Coco Corazon. The orange juice brings out the zing in the spice, but you can do without it. You can also cook it in a smoker for an hour instead of the oven if you're cray-cray like me.

Preheat your oven or smoker to 250º. Melt butter over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar, corn syrup, orange juice and salt. Stir until boiling at the edges. Lower the heat slightly and let boil until the caramel is 250º. Remove from heat and add the baking soda. Stir in the bacon.

Put the popcorn into a giant bowl and pour the caramel over it. Mix well. It's hard. You may feel like your arm is going to fall off. Divide the popcorn between two slightly oiled cookie sheets and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, mixing every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool. Break the slabs into an air-tight container and refrigerate.